Prison Notebooks

It’s that time of the year again: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). It might not be the most wonderful time of the year, but it is that time of the year nevertheless. And this year, something extraordinary happened, namely, that 157 out of 193 UN member nations decided to vote in favor of Palestinian … Continue reading Prison Notebooks →

The Security Dilemma

To put it simply, survival among states is “almost guaranteed” if a ruler or a state is able to conquer the whole world. In other words, achieve what is never possible in order to achieve relative security. Power is always distributed, and in turn, states will always try to change the distribution of power through … Continue reading The Security Dilemma →

Gemeinschaft

Supranational or internationalist ethics and institutions such as the ‘United Nations’ assumes that there are shared beliefs, ethics, and values between different nations. But nationalism and its “ethical system” upends such an assumption. To borrow from Morgenthau: “Nations no longer oppose each other, as they did from the Treaty of Westphalia to the Napoleonic Wars, … Continue reading Gemeinschaft →

The Ethics of Nationalism

The basic dichotomy at the heart of our politics at the moment, nevertheless, is the one between economy and “democracy.” Or in other words, the dichotomy between economy and culture. And this is where nationalism and religion – which are perhaps the two most powerful forces in the social world – come into play. As … Continue reading The Ethics of Nationalism →

Embeddedness and Separateness

In short, the ones who have the education and experience to understand both culture and the economy are hidden and are in conflict with themselves, while the vast majority of people who do not have the education and experience to understand culture and the economy are out in public fighting with one another. And as Polanyi argued, the … Continue reading Embeddedness and Separateness →